Enlighten me. Which of Abreu’s stats should the casual or advanced fan find encouraging as to believe he will turn it around this season? Make a case for him. Other than the $400 billion dollars we are paying him, I’m genuinely interested as to how one can make a case as to why he should not be benched permanently at this point.
I was a big Abreu fan when we signed him, even though he was legitimately criticized as having a pretty “meh” year last season for his standards, I was very optimistic that he was to be a very good player for the Astros. The dude is just a professional hitter.
Furthermore, I was stoked about him get it turned around this year and being a dude for the Astros. I even dismissed another slow start as “Well, he just starts slow.” His pedigree is outstanding and I was convinced that he had more fuel in the tank for at least another season or two.
Alas, his career seems to be coming to an end right before our eyes and Astros leaders seemed intent on playing him only because of the financial investment they made (I guess??).
I’m obviously of the opinion that the Astros should cut bait immediately and move on as he’s a drag on the team as I think he may be the worst 1st baseman in MLB and that’s not going to cut it for a team that’s trying to make one more run. Play Singleton every day, play the kid, hell, play Yordan at 1st (he played 1st a bunch in his minor league career). But trotting him out there everyday is not helping the team score more runs or play better defense.
I doubt that this will enlighten you, because enlightenment requires a brain capable of processing anything more than the simplest thought.
Not one word you have said has illuminated a single person about Abreu’s performance. You state the glaringly obvious and act like nobody has ever recognized it before. If that were all you do, you would be a simple bore, readily ignored.
Everyone’s problem with you, and for me especially, is that you choose to insult Abreu as a man and not just criticize his performance. Then you throw up your hands and say “no, I didn’t mean it personally!”
The problem isn’t that you’re a baseball simpleton. The problem is that you’re a cowardly asshole.
Wait, okay, so you attack me personally behind your keyboard and that makes you…???
I mean what I said, I don’t know why that so hard for you to understand. Which leads me to believe you just don’t want to or you are incapable.
I don’t know the man but his poor play is losing games…thus my comment. Are there other reasons as to why the Astros have been losing games? You bet. However, the fact that some of you took my comment as a personal attack, and are intent to defend his honor, and then attack me personally is so completely absurd and pathetic that it’s classic modern social media all in about 20 posts.
PS. I didn’t say that I was going to a enlighten anyone I asked for someone to enlighten me. You can’t. You’ll just continue with personal insults.
First let’s deal with the Singleton. What are you seeing in him that tells you he is an everyday first baseman? In May when he played just about every day, he hit .214/.324/360. The one area where he showed significant value was taking walks. He took 15 walks in 89 at bats while striking out 28 times. With runners in scoring position this year, he is hitting .152/.237/.424 - Only 5 of his 30 hits and 4 of his 21 walks have come with runnes in scoring position. Now he did have 3 of his 5 HR with runners in scoring postion. The bat drops/bat flips have stuck in our memories and have made us think he is producing more than he really is.
Singleton for his career is a .182/.295/.325 hitter in the Major Leagues. He is currently performing better than that at .222/.325/.365. But what makes us think he is going to be better than he has been in the past at age 32 almost 33? He is a bench bat.
Let’s also forget about Yordan playing first - He played only 40 games at 1st in the minors all before AAA. The concensous was he was a below average 1st baseman. There was talk of him playing 1st again after he knee surgeries in 2020 but he hasn’t played there at all. If that was a viable option, I think the Astros front office would have already thought about that and put him there. Let’s aways start with the assumption the front office has more info than we have.
For Abreu, just my opinion but nothing that happened prior to being sent down to figure things out has any bearing on his current value. Only what has happened since his return:
In a very small sample size of 4 games we can’t draw much but there are some promising signs and some not so promising signs. In the four games since he has been back he has had hits in 4 of those games. How many times did he do that in 22 games played prior to being sent down? zero.
He only had 1 extra base ( a double) hit in 77 PA when he was sent down. He hit a HR in the first four games back.
In the four games he has been back, he is hitting .231/.231/.462 - That is the number I am watching. What he has done since he came back from the minors.
What concerns me about his numbers sence he came back? Strike outs and walks. He has struck out six out of 13 PAs and taken no walks. That has to change.
Again these are small sample sizes but these are the numbers I think we can look at to see progress.
The Astros IMO do not have another everyday major league first baseman on their roster. Abreu is being given time to show he learned something in his time away. Why? Because of his track record as a MLB hitter.
Four games isn’t enought time to declare the work a failure or a success.
You are correct, the Astros currently do not have a quality MLB starting 1st baseman. While the Singleton story is fun, he’s not “it”. But…so far…of the dudes we have, he’s been the most consistent this season so based on actual production he deserves the most playing time.
I don’t even really care that much about average for him (or JA too) if he just hits bombs. But he’s not really doing that either.
Bagwell is going to continue to lobby for his guy to get PA. Because of him and his veteran status, he will get them. But how many and how long before someone says enough is enough?
The season is aging and teams can make big runs, but the Astros really haven’t shown that they are capable of that outside of a couple weeks in May.
I think you are giving too much credit and power to Bagwell. Bagwell had a prominent role in the absense of a GM. Now that a GM is in place, I haven’t see anything that tells me he has been calling shots about line ups and playing time. That is between Espada and Brown. I believe Bagwell does have Crane’s ear but neither have a reputation of medling in day to day operations.
Crane has been willing to spend when it will make a difference. Eating Abreu’s salary and bringing someone else in doesn’t move the needle on wins at this time because of other signifcant holes - primarily starting pitching.
Abreu isn’t a middle of the line up hitter anymore. Based on Fangraphs a few years ago, the MLB average for a batter in the 8th spot (which is where I fugure JA will be the rest of the year) was .232/.295/.362 with a RC+ of 87. If he can exceed those numbers the rest of the year, I will be content for his production this year. That will also increase the chance of him being traded with the Astros probably having to eat some of his remaining salary.
Look, I’ve taken a lot of heat for my comments/opinion regarding Mr. Abreu and his poor performance. That’s fine I’m okay with it, I will take my licks. I’ve been visiting sports bulletin boards since they were created in the early 90s. Ain’t no thing. But there’s this and I will close the door on it.
JA make an absolute crap ton of money and he has $19.5MM reasons not to care what I have to say about him, nor, I reckon, does he need your defense of his character. He most definitely has heard worse directly from fans (including Astros fans) at games. Because of this I feel pretty confident he can take the heat of disgruntled fans on message boards.
It just feels a bit ironic and hypocritical for some on this board to get all bent out of shape and demand decorum about a random negative (derogatory??) comment made towards a dude that literally makes tens of millions of dollars and gives zero f**ks, and the throw all of that decorum away when we address each other. Anyways, just my $0.02.
In the end, all of our opinions on this board are worth no more than a pile of dried goat s**t. Mine included. I find all of your opinions interesting even if I don’t agree with them.
My $0.04 is that you weren’t just criticizing his play and pay, we do that with big money guys all the time: Popup Bregman, Baserunning Altuve, Meltdown Framber, etc…
You were calling out him as a person. That’s just not cool.